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                             FADING LIGHTS

A scenario about the Roman - Byzantine Empire in the age of the Paleologs' 
dynasty. I would like to dedicate it to my two frogs, one prawn, four fish
(skalar and three goldfish) who died during the period of making this scn,
all other anilmals I have and had,
and one frog-lover that i.s. has died too.

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README
1)Basics
2)What you see
3)historical background
4)Brief characteristics of involved civilizations
5)How to change event files
6)Accuracy of the scn
7)Other stuff
a)Title
b)Flags
c)Other stuff
d)The map
e)People
f)Cities
8)Credits
9)Bibliography
README2
1)Cities
2)Units
3)Osobiste wynurzenia autora

3)HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

From the reign of Emperor Heraclius, up to the 11th century, the scene in 
the Eastern Empire hadn't changed that much.  For both Romans and Arabs there 
were periods of glory and periods of decline.  But as one patriarch of
Constantinople wrote to emir of Crethe, "Two mights of the world, Saracens 
and Romans are shining as two brightest stars in the sky. That is why We have to
live together as brothers, although we vary so much with customs, habits and
faith".  Arabs and Byzantines managed to live in relative peace.  Even 
during the wars of the Macedonian Emperors, which bore some similarities to the
crusades, Byzantium never really experienced the strange state of mind
characteristic of most western crusaders.
This long-lasting period, alternating peace and civilized tension, made both
the Arabs (illustrated by the Fatimids) and the Byzantines, vulnerable to
Seljuk Turks' attack.  However, the Byzantines also had to face a new danger
that appeared in Italy, and tended to expand aggressively - the Normans!  
The Byzantine empire survived thanks largely to the energy and talents of 
Alexius Comnenos.  But even with help of the First Crusade, the only one generally
useful for Byzantines, he couldn't regain all former imperial territory.  
When empire finally appeared to have regained its strength, and it seemed that
sultanate Al-Rum would fall with Konya (Iconium), Manuel Comnenos' plans 
were ruined by another crusade.  After that it was too late.  Moreover, 
Myriokefalon was as great disaster as the earlier Manatzkert, as Sebastea, as Al-Jarmuk.
But the opportunity wasn't completely lost!  After every lost battle, the
Empire was able to revive some of its greatness.  It would probably have 
been the same, after the latest disasters, if not for the unforgivable fourth
crusade - an episode even darker than the European crusades against the
Moslems.  Some assert that the states established by the First Crusade 
couln't have survived;  I can't agree.  They could have survived - if the "help" 
from Europe would have been more rational.  But due to the irresponsibility of 
the Europeans, after Hittin, Outremer have collapsed.  It was easy now to blame
"you know who" for the crusaders failure.  So the Byzantines received a stroke
in their back.  And they fell.  Standing up, the survivors had to
look in the direction of their lost capital. Meanwhile, drastic changes occured
on their eastern border. Some of these changes may have been used with a great
profit for the Byzantines. But they haven't been used, and this turned to be
the greatest tragedy of the Byzantines;  they created new dangers that, in the
end, appeared mortal to the old Empire.
Later, The West tried to correct its mistakes. But it was late, much too 
late. The puny creations of later crusades weren't able to survive,
they only caused that Byzantines, the force that had been able to shield
and protect Europe, was now quickly declining, attacked on all sides.  
Europe regarded Constantinople as its enemy, and treated it as such, so such it
became. Because of the Crusades - the movement that was supposed to protect
Christianity - half of it was lost.  And now, after all the turns in 
history, Constantinople is still a part of Turkey.  The Empire never came back.  The
undisrupted, real, and only true Roman tradition was destroyed.  But it was
not the Turks who were to blame.  It was the Catholic states of western 
Europe who were responsible for this tragedy.  The Empire died, and no real heirs
could be found.  Russia? Silly.  Romania?  The same.  The conqueror of
Constantinople regarded himself as Emperor, his country as a continuation of
the Byzantine tradition in some sense.  But his succeedors didn't see 
anything useful in those dreams. On the same lands, the Turks created a country that
has an almost as important place in history.  But its culture is harder for
"westerners" to understand.  And although Turkey is becoming and hopefully
will become a part of Europe, it won't be the same.  The roots of Europe 
have decayed or have been cut. Will the tree fall?  No, of course not.  But it
will never, never be able to profit from its background as well as it could
have, had the Empire not died.

Bombastic, I know.

4)PLAYERS

EGYPTIANS (yellow) NOT FOR PLAY

Under the rules of merciless Baybars, the Mamelucks defeated
the Mongols and could finally deal with their old enemies, the
Latin states of Outremer.

BYZANTINES (orange) YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO PLAY THEM!!!

The survivors of the ancient Roman Empire.  It was almost destroyed
by the barbarian Latins of the fourth crusade, but seems to have
restored some of its' strength.  Will it be able, under the rule
of the new dynasty of the Paleologs, to survive the new dangers from
the east?

Of course not.

But try!

You'll have some trouble with money, so trade!  And choose
trading cities wisely!

House Rules:

- Don't move fortifications!
- Don't change support city of fortifications or units got by events!
- Don't rename cities!
- Don't disband cities!

LATINS (white) ALTERNATIVE FOR PLAY

Normans' raids and the Crusades begane the period of Latin
penetration of the Mediterrean East.  This era is now coming
to an end.  Unless you play them, of course, Outremer is
rather lost.  But can you succesfully build a lasting empire?
I think playing them is most interesting.  For the Latins, it is
important to note that you can build fortification, although only
in one city.  Also, there is no house restriction against moving them.

House Rules:

- Don't rename cities!
- Don't disband cities!

If you play Latins, make a proper change in "people" file;
Replace little faces with other set located lower.

SERBIANS (light blue) NOT FOR PLAY

Seems not so impressive, but in XIV century the Serbs became the
greatest power on Balkan penisula.

BULGARIANS (green) EVENTUALLY...

After its time of relative strength, Bulgaria is falling
apart and is becoming a field for foreign expansion.
But don't underestimate it!

House rules:

- Don't rename cities!
- Don't disband cities!


TURKS (red) NOT FOR PLAY

The Turkish Sultanate Al-Rum is falling apart, also.  But the
decentralized successor states - ghazis' emirates - are even
stronger and have a greater understanding of their destiny
- spreading Islam into giaurs' territory.  By the sword...

GEORGIANS (grey) EVENTUALLY...

After a period of being the strongest power in the Middle East
under rule of King David The Restorer, and later the great
Queen Tamara, Georgia was, due to the Mongol invasions,
quickly declining.  However, the "Mongol" (meaning
barbarian) attacks are waning, Georgia remains a significant
power.

House rules:

- Don't rename cities!
- Don't disband cities!

5)HOW TO CHANGE EVENT FILES THANKS TO JORRIT'S VERMEIREN
BATCH FILE

Remember, event files should be changed every half-century,
namely in 1300, 1350, 1400, and 1450.

To change current event file on the following, drag your savegame onto 
EVNTSWAP
To move event files back to starting position, double-click on EVNTSWAP.

To be sure that it's correct, I place here the text by the author too.
Jorrit writes:

  What my file does is this:
  When someone drops his savegame onto the batch file (in Windows) [or calls
  EVNTSWAP with the name of the savegame as its first argument], my file 
looks
  which event files are in the events subfolder (at the beginning the
  events2.txt, events3.txt, events4.txt and events5.txt). When it notices 
the
  events1.txt isn't there it'll move and rename the original events.txt to
  events\events1.txt and move events\events2.txt to events.txt. It will then
  remove the event data from the savegame by calling DELEVENT.EXE.
  The next time someone needs to change the events, he can again drop the
  savegame over this batch file. This time it will see events2.txt is being
  used (because it's not in the events subfolder) and now moves
  events\events3.txt to events.txt and moves events.txt back to
  events\events2.txt. This continues in the same manner until the player has
  reached the end of the scenario. When he drops his savegame on the batch
  file again, events1.txt will be moved back again, so the player can start
  the scenario anew if he wishes.
  Sometimes players might want to restart the scenario again. Because the
  events files are all swapped around those should be moved back. EVNTSWAP
  also takes care of that. When you double-click the batch file (i.e. don't
  use any arguments) it will automatically put the first events file into
  place.


6)ACCURACY

Historical:

The complicated situation in what is showed here as turkish territory can't 
be properly displayed in any scenario. Turkey at this moment was falling to
pieces (sharp, however), and lands on the east bank of Halys weren't quite
Turkish at the time.  Also, because of the too many cities and Only Seven 
Players problems, I couldn't make eastern situation historically correct to the 
extent I wanted. Arabkir and neighboring cities play an important role in making
Byzantine trade with Egypt more difficult (sea route is cut off by the Latins,
the other ground way is made completely impassable by the Turks).  Also, they
involve Turks in the eastern matters, and perhaps with your diplomatic help,
or even without it, they'll be fighting occasionally with the Georgians,
Egyptians and/or Latins.  That would cause movement
of their units in those directions, and they would loose some of them -
it'd be good for you.  But that way, the Turks will attack the cities of Pontus,
by the way.

I'm not quite sure if Laodikeia belonged to Byzantines, or to the Turks at 
this time..
Different resources disagree on that point.

The Byzantine Empire was declining and, probably, so will you.  You actually 
can't change history completely; isn't it enough to participate in it?
Nah, you can do it.
But it won't be easy.

I'll be a bit boastful now:  I tried to be accurate if it's about cities and 
roads. I used medieval maps where I could, and compared today's and ancient when 
medieval weren't available.  Unfortunatelly, I have no maps concerning roads of 
Georgia and Major Armenia, which can be seen.

I also tried to it set up so that important cities fall at approximately 
historical times, to some extent.  Of course, some cities, due to their location,
won't fall in the proper time. Also, the time in which the Turks will reach
and conquer the Aegean cost and Bithnia, depends on your strategy and plain luck.
Unfortunatelly, there is a problem I just can't overcome:  it is that if the ghazis'
expansion starts at once, from the beginning of the game, cities in Anatoly will be
falling at approximately historical times;  if this expansion is moved to the eighties,
as it was in reality, the fall of those cities will be postponed, too.  As the AI is
even better at keeping the cities, I made something for them to start this invasion
earlier - the "Michael" unit stands next to Constantinople;  unlike the (well, inteligent)
human player, the AI will loose it in the first turn, splashing it on the walls of New Rome.
That's why Michael isn't somewhere in Bulgaria, where he was in reality, but here. Of course,
I know, how it was with capturing Constantinople in AD1261.

Oh, as the Latins, you can stop Turks quite easily, even without 
fortifications. Stopping them as the Byzantines is a bit harder task.
But it is easier than keeping Outremer as the Latins.

Keep in mind that even with proper events, and enormous effort, I can't be 
sure when exactly a city would fall;  I just can't be sure how the gameplay will be 
going - to whom would the city belong, how many defenders would be in it, etc.  The 
problem is that usually, the city would fall only in the following turns; and I 
don't know if the start of the event, or its predicted result, should be 
reflecting the actual date of the attack/conquest, usually the same?

Units like Catalonians and Fatih may seem a bit overused;
I didn't have much choice, though.

I wondered if I shouldn't place city of Trus on a "penisula"
but eventually got to the point that then, it may accelerate
Acco's fall.

Korsu - Cherchonesus at Cryme, was a part of the Empire
at the time.  But giving it to the proper owners would mean
removing the Latin pressure on Empire in the Black Sea region.
Anyway, the city belonged to Genuans de facto.

I know that green isn't the best colour for those regions, but does it 
matter? I wonder if you will like the frogs. I know, I know... but I couldn't 
control myself!

7)ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

a)TITLE
Title.gif, it shows ch&ched icon of 
St.Dymitr/Demetriusz/Demetrius/Demetrios, patron
of european parts of the Empire, saint warrior, from whom Byzantines were 
expecting salvation. His cult on a bigger scale started in the age of Slavonic 
expansion into Greek lands. St Demetrios -of course antislavian- was one of the first 
saints, who were used as a symbol of the fight against Them.

Title, "fading lights" is taken from one song:
"Fading lights",
written by T.Banks/P.Collins/M.Rutherford,
released on "We can't dance" album,
year 1991.


b)FLAGS
  BYZANTINE;
  Just after liberating Constantinople, Michael Paleolog selected a new device
  and flag for the Empire. It was double-headed eagle holding sword and orb. 
  One head was supposed to be turned in the direction of the European provinces,
  the second, the Asian ones.

  GEORGIAN;
  Georgian flag was either something like red Jerusalem cross on white screen,
  or belts of these colours, but a separate kingdom in west Georgia had as a 
  flag a white cross on black screen.

  LATIN;
  Jerusalem cross. What else could I use?

  BULGARIAN;
  I haven't found any information about bulgarian flag of Middle Ages.
  Therefore, I used the flag of today.

  EGYPTIAN;
  Green is the colour of all moslems, the but Mamluk colour was yellow,
  so I guess that should be the one used for Mamluk Sultanate's flag.

  SERBIAN;
  The same as with Bulgaria, though the colours should be the same
  as were used in medieval Serbia (?)

  TURKISH;
  God knows how it should look. I will leave the red flag by J.Balsinde,
  though I must make a one change; there should be crescent, and just it;
  star (I guess it was there) was added only after capturing Constantinople,
  so I had to removed it.

c)Other

  Sorry for this "too many cities" pop-up problem. I reduced it as far as I 
  could!

  THERE ARE NO SOUNDS, AND YOU SHOULD HAVE THIS OPTION TURNED OFF!

  IMPORTANT
  If you play Byzantines and want to be hist. correct: after a note about
  Steven Dushan, don't sign a cease-fire or peace treaty with Serbians
  until they reach Neopatras (until the message about death of Steven).

d)MAP
  Map was made by me.
  Isn't it beautiful?
  You can find some more of my maps at Mathias Koesters' civilization site.

e)PEOPLE
  All faces were made by me.

f)CITIES ICONS

BYZANTINE were made of old Middle Eastern images by I-Do-Not-Know-Who.
The extra large image's church is based on Hagia Sophia, which is quite 
clear.
With a bit of effort, You can recognise Hagia Eirene in large and medium 
churches.
Church in the small image is trying to show St Theodosia church, also in 
Constantinople.

GEORGIAN cities are based on Sweti-Cchoweli temple in Mcheta (extra large),
cathedral in Gelati (large), cathedral in Samtawisi (medium);
houses, exept for the extra-large picture, are imitating real shapes of
georgian houses. Well, they are trying. Tower in walled medium city
is based on a tower of monastery in Ubisi.

BALCANIAN SLAVIANS' cities are based on different churches of that region;
as far as i can remember, of Ochrid.

I'm not very proud of LATIN cities.
Most of them are based on old ones.

EGYPTIAN aren't finished,
but extra large is based - to some extent, keep it in mind - on the Great 
(U/Ommajjads')
mosque of Damascus. Rest is for now based on Qubbath as-Sakhra in Jerusalem.

8)CREDITS-
in "credits".
but also;

I would like to thank to:

                   Alex The Magnificent- for units
                   Allard H.S. Hfelt- for units (?)
                   Bernd Brosing- for playtesting (and he's done a lot of it),
                                  icons, advices etc
                   David Morovan- for units (?)
                   Edward Conway "Khanman" for some explenation
                   Harlan Thompson- for images of mountains
                   Jess Balsinde- for units, Turkish flag (mod).
                   Jorrit Vermeiren- for his inestimable evntswap.bat
                   Juan Moreno- for units
                   Mathias Koester- icons and units, description of one wonder,
                                    advices and playtesting
                   Paul Hanti- for playtesting and advices
                   Rob Roy- for playtesting, translation (if there are some mistakes,
                            either He didn't translate it, or I changed it later),
                            a lot of useful advices...
                   Stefan Hrtel- for playtesting, advices etc

I used some icons by other creators. I'm too lazy to think about who have 
made them...

9)BIBLIOGRAPHY



Bohdan Baranowski   \
                     }         "Historia Gruzji"
Krzysztof Baranowski/

Hans-Wilhelm Haussig           "Kulturgeschichte von Byzanz"

Peter M.Holt                   "The Age of the Crusades
                                The Near East from the eleventh century to 
1517"

Aleksander Krawczuk            "Poczet cesarzy bizantyjskich"

Maria Krukowska                "Jugosawia"

David Marshall Lang            "The Georgians"

Georges Marais                "L'art musulman"

John E.Morby                   "Dynasties of the World"

Maciej Popko                   "Turcja"

Steven Runcinman               "A history of the crusades"
                               "Fall of Constantinople 1453"

Jan Alfred Szczepaski         "Grecja"

Tadeusz Wasilewski             "Historia Bugarii"

Mirosawa Zakrzewska-Dubasowa  "Historia Armenii"

----                           "Shtze der Menscheit"

Tim Cornell   \
John Matthews  }               "Rome"
Peter Brown   /

Stefan Gulas\
             }                 "aglowce"
Pavol Pevny /

PPWK                           "Atlas historyczny wiata"

and some more.
